No info from informants about Griekwastad killings

Police informants were unable to provide information about the Griekwastad triple murder in 2012, Warrant Officer Sebastiaan Mofokeng told the Northern Cape High Court on Friday.

He had also not received information about anybody suddenly spending a huge amount of cash, Mofokeng testified in the trial of a 16-year-old youth.

He is accused of killing farmer Deon Steenkamp, 44, his wife Christel, 43, and daughter Marthella, 14, on the farm Naauwhoek, on April 6.

Mofokeng, who has 22 years experience in the police in Griekwastad, said the normal type of investigation carried out in farm attacks -- among farm workers and their friends -- had also yielded no information.

Mofokeng has testified that he was the first policeman on the scene.

He moved into the house with two police officers covering him from a possible attack, and gave orders that nothing should be touched or moved while they check for survivors inside.

Mofokeng testified that he recognised the victims because he knew them.

He told the court a white Nissan 1400 bakkie found abandoned on the road to the farm belonged to a farmworker named Jan Koopman.

He had picked up farmworkers in the police vehicle and taken them to the farmhouse with him.

Under cross examination, Mofokeng acknowledged that he had many unsolved cases on his desk.

He agreed with the youth's defence counsel Willem Coetzee that in many cases no information came in from informants.

The case continues.

-SAPA

November 2017

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